Untamed Bronco

Every day brings a new report of a Ford dealer gouging a customer who only wants to pay the full retail price for a new Bronco.

They call this scalping a “market adjustment” in a way that would outrage even a war profiteer.

This kind of nonsense has been going on for decades. Back in the summer of 1994, I was in the market for a Bronco. I took a couple of test drives. In the interval between the look-see and walking in to put my money down, there was a famous chase involving a celebrity athlete in the very same vehicle.

When I dropped back in to see the dealer, I knew the economics of the deal had changed. That’s because the salesman said, “I guess you saw our infomercial!”

Not only had the price gone up, there was an upcharge over the sticker price.

I told him to write up the deal and add any profit that he thought was fair. He smiled and went into the back office. That’s when I left.

I got my Bronco six months later. The waiting allowed me to find a 9 month old model that was owned by a friend of a friend. By then, the hoopla had faded and buyer and seller each felt like a square deal had been struck.

I drove that Bronco for eight years.

It was an ideal vehicle for my days of hauling big cases of equipment. In one of the last sessions it carried me to, my Bronco was also a part of a seed company ad that was shot in an Illinois corn field.

About the author: I am Stephen Kennedy, an experienced photographer with more than 2500 completed sessions in all 50 US states.